PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS — 20 Questions

Question 1

A company is planning to migrate its SAP S/4HANA system to AWS. The system requires high availability with an RTO of less than 30 minutes and RPO of less than 15 minutes. The SAP application layer runs on Linux. Which architecture should a solutions architect recommend to meet these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Deploy the SAP application on two EC2 instances in different AZs with a shared EFS file system, and use a multi-AZ RDS for SAP HANA with synchronous replication.. Option D is correct because it meets the RTO of <30 minutes and RPO of <15 minutes by deploying the SAP application on two EC2 instances across different Availability Zones with a shared EFS file system for stateless application files, and using a multi-AZ RDS for SAP HANA with synchronous replication. Synchronous replication ensures zero data loss (RPO=0) and automatic failover to the standby in a different AZ achieves RTO well under 30 minutes. The Linux SAP application layer is stateless, so EFS provides a shared, highly available file system that allows either instance to serve traffic seamlessly after a failover.

Answer

Deploy the SAP application on a single EC2 instance and use S3 for database backups with cross-region replication.

Answer

Deploy a single EC2 instance for the SAP application and database in one Availability Zone, and take hourly snapshots of the EBS volumes.

Answer

Use two EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group with instance store volumes for the database, and store application files on S3.

Question 2

A company runs SAP Business Suite on an SAP HANA database on AWS. The database uses EBS gp2 volumes. The operations team notices high latency during peak hours. The metrics show that the volume queue depth is consistently above the recommended threshold. What is the MOST cost-effective change to reduce latency?

Accepted Answer

Increase the size of the existing EBS gp2 volume to a larger size.. Increasing the size of an existing gp2 volume is the most cost-effective solution because gp2 volumes have a baseline performance of 3 IOPS per GB, and they can burst up to 3,000 IOPS for volumes up to 1,000 GB. By increasing the volume size, you raise the baseline IOPS, which reduces the queue depth without incurring the higher per-GB cost of io1 or io2 volumes. This directly addresses the high latency caused by queue depth exceeding the recommended threshold during peak hours.

Answer

Migrate from gp2 to io2 EBS volumes with the same size.

Answer

Modify the volume to use Provisioned IOPS (io1) with a higher IOPS value.

Answer

Add an additional EBS volume and stripe the volumes using LVM.

Question 3

A company has an SAP HANA database running on an EC2 instance with 1.9 TB of memory. The database requires persistent storage. The solutions architect must choose a storage configuration that provides the highest IOPS and throughput while maintaining data durability. Which storage option should the architect choose?

Accepted Answer

Use multiple io2 EBS volumes with Block Express striped together using LVM.. Option A is correct because it combines multiple io2 Block Express EBS volumes striped via LVM, which delivers the highest possible IOPS and throughput for SAP HANA on AWS. io2 Block Express volumes support up to 256,000 IOPS and 4,000 MB/s throughput per volume, and striping multiple volumes linearly scales these limits to meet the demands of a 1.9 TB memory HANA database. This configuration also ensures data durability through EBS replication within an Availability Zone, unlike instance store volumes.

Answer

Use a single io2 Block Express EBS volume of the required size.

Answer

Use multiple gp3 EBS volumes striped together with LVM.

Answer

Use NVMe instance store volumes for the HANA data and log areas.

Question 4

A company runs its SAP ERP system on AWS. The database is SAP HANA on an EC2 instance. The system is critical and requires a recovery point objective (RPO) of less than 5 minutes and a recovery time objective (RTO) of less than 2 hours. Which solution meets these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Backup with the SAP HANA Backup and Restore feature (Backint integration) to perform continuous backups to S3.. AWS Backup with the SAP HANA Backup and Restore feature (Backint integration) provides continuous, incremental backups to Amazon S3, achieving an RPO of less than 5 minutes with automated, policy-driven backups. This solution minimizes operational overhead by eliminating manual scripting and infrastructure management, while supporting point-in-time recovery within the required RTO of under 2 hours.

Answer

Use EBS snapshots of the root and data volumes taken every 5 minutes.

Answer

Set up HANA system replication across two EC2 instances in different Availability Zones with manual failover.

Answer

Schedule manual HANA backups to S3 using cron scripts and hdbsql commands.

Question 5

A company is designing a new SAP environment on AWS. The SAP application servers communicate with the database over the network. The architect wants to minimize latency and maximize throughput. Which placement strategy should the architect use?

Accepted Answer

Place all servers in a single Availability Zone and use a cluster placement group.. A cluster placement group is the correct choice because it provides the lowest possible latency and highest throughput by ensuring that all SAP application and database servers are placed in close physical proximity within a single Availability Zone. This placement minimizes network hops and leverages non-blocking, high-bandwidth networking, which is critical for SAP's latency-sensitive communication between application and database layers.

Answer

Place the application servers in one Availability Zone and the database in a different Availability Zone.

Answer

Place the application servers in one VPC and the database in a different VPC connected via VPC peering.

Answer

Place the application servers in one AWS Region and the database in another Region.

Question 6

A company is migrating its SAP NetWeaver system to AWS and wants to implement a high-availability architecture for the SAP Central Services (ASCS) and Enqueue Replication Server (ERS). Which TWO of the following are required components in a recommended AWS HA setup for ASCS and ERS?

Accepted Answer

A shared file system (e.g., Amazon EFS) to store the SAP transport directory and global profile.. Option A is correct because in an SAP NetWeaver high-availability architecture on AWS, a shared file system such as Amazon EFS is required to store the SAP transport directory and global profile. This ensures that both the ASCS and ERS instances can access consistent configuration and transport files, which is essential for failover and cluster operations. Without a shared file system, the instances would have divergent configurations, breaking the HA setup.

Answer

An Application Load Balancer to distribute traffic between ASCS and ERS instances.

Answer

A read replica of the SAP HANA database to offload application traffic.

Answer

A secondary Windows Server Failover Cluster in a different Availability Zone.

Question 7

A company runs SAP S/4HANA on AWS with a large HANA database (10 TB). The database uses EBS gp3 volumes. The system experiences performance degradation due to high disk I/O. The architect decides to migrate to EBS io2 Block Express volumes. Which THREE factors should the architect consider when planning the migration?

Accepted Answer

The maximum IOPS per volume supported by io2 Block Express is 256,000.. Option A is correct because io2 Block Express volumes support a maximum IOPS of 256,000 per volume, which is significantly higher than the 16,000 IOPS limit of gp3. This high IOPS capability is critical for large SAP HANA databases (10 TB) that experience performance degradation due to high disk I/O, as it allows the database to handle bursty workloads without throttling.

Answer

SAP HANA supports RAID 0 across multiple io2 volumes without additional software.

Answer

io2 Block Express volumes can be attached to multiple EC2 instances simultaneously using EBS Multi-Attach.

Question 8

A company is running SAP S/4HANA on AWS. They are experiencing high read latency on their EBS volumes used for /usr/sap. Which of the following is the MOST effective way to improve read performance?

Accepted Answer

Use io2 Block Express volumes with provisioned IOPS.. The io2 Block Express volume type provides the highest durability and consistent low-latency performance for SAP workloads, with up to 256,000 provisioned IOPS per volume. For /usr/sap, which is sensitive to read latency due to frequent binary and configuration file access, io2 Block Express ensures predictable sub-millisecond latency even under high I/O demand, directly addressing the high read latency issue.

Answer

Change the volume type to gp3 with higher throughput.

Answer

Move to a larger instance type with more network bandwidth.

Answer

Configure RAID 0 across multiple volumes.

Question 9

A company plans to migrate their SAP HANA database to AWS. They require the highest availability with automatic failover in case of an AZ failure. Which architecture should they use?

Accepted Answer

Multi-AZ with HANA System Replication in sync mode and automatic failover.. Option A is correct because it meets the requirement for highest availability with automatic failover in case of an AZ failure. HANA System Replication (HSR) in synchronous mode ensures zero data loss (RPO=0) by committing transactions only after they are replicated to the standby, and when combined with Multi-AZ deployment, it provides automatic failover across Availability Zones. This architecture is the AWS-recommended pattern for SAP HANA high availability, leveraging the AWS Multi-AZ concept with HSR's built-in automatic takeover capability.

Answer

Single AZ with HANA System Replication to a standby in the same AZ.

Answer

Single AZ with daily backups to Amazon S3.

Answer

Multi-AZ with HANA System Replication in async mode and manual failover.

Question 10

A company runs SAP Business Suite on AWS. They notice that their SAP application servers are not evenly distributing load across multiple instances. They have configured an Application Load Balancer (ALB) in front of the SAP Web Dispatchers. What is the MOST likely cause of uneven load distribution?

Accepted Answer

Sticky sessions (session stickiness) are enabled on the ALB.. When sticky sessions (session stickiness) are enabled on an Application Load Balancer, the ALB uses a cookie to bind a client's session to a specific target (SAP Web Dispatcher). This prevents the load balancer from distributing subsequent requests from that client to other healthy targets, causing an uneven distribution of load across the SAP application servers, especially if a few clients generate a disproportionate number of requests.

Answer

The ALB health check interval is too short.

Answer

Cross-zone load balancing is enabled.

Answer

The ALB is using the least outstanding requests routing algorithm.

Question 11

A company is designing a disaster recovery (DR) strategy for SAP S/4HANA on AWS. The primary site is in us-east-1. They want a secondary site in us-west-2 with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 2 hours. Which solution meets these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?

Accepted Answer

Use HANA System Replication in sync mode with automatic failover to us-west-2.. Option D is correct because HANA System Replication in synchronous mode with automatic failover provides the lowest RPO (near-zero data loss) and meets the 15-minute RPO and 2-hour RTO requirements with minimal operational overhead. Automatic failover eliminates manual intervention, reducing recovery time and complexity compared to other options.

Answer

Take hourly backups to S3 and restore in us-west-2 when needed.

Answer

Use HANA System Replication to us-west-2 with manual failover.

Answer

Use HANA System Replication in async mode to us-west-2.

Question 12

A company is running SAP HANA on an r5.8xlarge instance. They want to scale up to meet increased memory requirements. Which instance family would be the MOST suitable for a scale-up scenario?

Accepted Answer

x1e.32xlarge. The x1e.32xlarge instance is part of the X1e family, which is specifically designed for high-memory workloads like SAP HANA. With 3,904 GiB of memory, it provides the largest memory capacity among AWS instances, making it the most suitable for scaling up SAP HANA to meet increased memory requirements. SAP HANA is an in-memory database, so scaling up requires instances with high memory-to-vCPU ratios, which the X1e family delivers.

Answer

r5.24xlarge

Answer

i3.16xlarge

Answer

c5.18xlarge

Question 13

Which TWO of the following are best practices for securing SAP workloads on AWS?

Accepted Answer

Use IAM roles to grant EC2 instances access to AWS services.. IAM roles allow EC2 instances to securely access AWS services (e.g., S3, DynamoDB) without embedding long-term credentials. By attaching an IAM role to an EC2 instance, the instance can obtain temporary credentials via the instance metadata service, which is a best practice for securing SAP workloads on AWS.

Answer

Disable encryption in transit between application and database tiers.

Answer

Allow SSH access from the internet for administration.

Answer

Store SAP backup files in a public S3 bucket for easy access.

Question 14

Which THREE of the following are valid considerations when designing an SAP HANA backup strategy on AWS?

Accepted Answer

Use EBS snapshots for backing up HANA data volumes.. Option A is correct because EBS snapshots provide a consistent, point-in-time backup of HANA data volumes when the database is in backup mode (e.g., using hdbsql to create a snapshot). This method is supported by SAP and AWS, and it allows for fast recovery by restoring the entire volume without needing to replay transaction logs from a separate backup.

Answer

Back up HANA data directly to Amazon S3 using standard tools.

Answer

Replicate backups to another AWS Region using S3 Cross-Region Replication.

Question 15

A company is running SAP on AWS and needs to design a disaster recovery (DR) solution with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 4 hours. The primary region is us-east-1 and the DR region is us-west-2. The SAP application uses an SAP HANA database with a size of 2 TB. Which combination of AWS services should be used to meet the DR requirements most cost-effectively?

Accepted Answer

Configure HANA System Replication (HSR) across regions and use a standby HANA instance in us-west-2 with a smaller instance size.. Option D is correct because HANA System Replication (HSR) is the native SAP HANA replication technology that can achieve an RPO of 15 minutes or less by asynchronously replicating data across regions. By using a smaller standby instance in us-west-2, the solution meets the RTO of 4 hours (since the standby can be scaled up or promoted quickly) while minimizing ongoing DR costs. This approach is purpose-built for SAP HANA and avoids the overhead of third-party tools or backup-based restores.

Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with continuous replication from the primary HANA database to a target in us-west-2.

Answer

Use AWS Backup with continuous backups and cross-region copy to achieve RPO of 15 minutes.

Answer

Use AWS Backup to take hourly backups of the HANA database and restore in us-west-2 during a disaster.

Question 16

An SAP workload on AWS uses an Auto Scaling group for the SAP Central Services (ASCS) and Enqueue Replication Server (ERS) instances. The instances are launched with a custom AMI that includes the SAP software. During a recent failover test, the ASCS instance failed to start after being terminated and re-launched by the Auto Scaling group. The error log indicates that the ASCS instance cannot find the quorum device. What is the most likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

The quorum device (EBS volume) was not re-attached or was not available in the same Availability Zone as the new ASCS instance.. In an SAP on AWS high-availability setup, the ASCS and ERS instances rely on a shared quorum device (typically an EBS volume or an Amazon EFS file system) to maintain cluster state and prevent split-brain scenarios. When the Auto Scaling group terminates and re-launches the ASCS instance, the new instance must have the quorum device attached and be in the same Availability Zone as the EBS volume (since EBS volumes are AZ-specific). If the quorum device is not re-attached or is in a different AZ, the SAP cluster cannot find it, causing the ASCS instance to fail to start.

Answer

The instance type of the new ASCS instance is different from the original, causing incompatibility with the SAP kernel.

Answer

The ASCS instance does not have a public IP address, preventing communication with the quorum device.

Answer

The Security Group associated with the ASCS instance does not allow inbound traffic on the quorum port.

Question 17

A company is planning to migrate its SAP ERP system to AWS. The database is SAP HANA with a size of 3 TB. The company wants to minimize downtime during the migration. Which migration strategy should the company use?

Accepted Answer

Use HANA System Replication to replicate the database to an EC2 instance running HANA in the target AWS environment, then perform a takeover.. HANA System Replication (HSR) is the optimal strategy for minimizing downtime because it continuously replicates data from the on-premises HANA database to an EC2 instance running HANA in AWS. When the migration window opens, a simple takeover (failover) occurs, typically completing in minutes, which meets the requirement for minimal downtime. This approach avoids the lengthy export/import or backup/restore processes that would take hours for a 3 TB database.

Answer

Export the HANA database to flat files using SAP HANA Studio, upload the files to Amazon S3, and import them into an EC2 HANA instance.

Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication to migrate the database to Amazon RDS for SAP HANA.

Answer

Use AWS Backup to take a full backup of the on-premises HANA database and restore it to an EC2 instance in AWS.

Question 18

A company runs SAP on AWS with an SAP HANA database on an r5.8xlarge instance. The company notices high network latency between the SAP application servers and the HANA database. The application servers are in the same VPC but different subnets. Which design change would MOST effectively reduce latency?

Accepted Answer

Launch the application servers and the HANA database in the same placement group.. Option A is correct because placing both the SAP application servers and the HANA database in the same cluster placement group ensures they are in close physical proximity within a single Availability Zone, minimizing network hops and reducing latency. Placement groups achieve this by co-locating instances on the same high-bandwidth, low-latency network fabric, which is critical for SAP HANA's real-time data processing requirements.

Answer

Create a VPC peering connection between the subnets of the application servers and the database.

Answer

Change the HANA database instance type to a compute-optimized instance such as c5.9xlarge.

Answer

Enable Enhanced Networking on the application servers by attaching an Elastic Network Adapter (ENA).

Question 19

A company is designing a high-availability architecture for SAP NetWeaver on AWS. The architecture includes two application server instances in different Availability Zones, a shared file system using Amazon EFS, and a database using SAP HANA with HANA System Replication (HSR). During a failover test, the application servers cannot connect to the database after the HANA secondary becomes the primary. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The SAP application servers are configured with the hostname of the primary HANA instance, which did not update after failover.. In SAP NetWeaver, application servers connect to the database using a fixed hostname or virtual IP address. After HANA System Replication (HSR) failover, the secondary becomes the primary but retains its own hostname unless a virtual hostname (e.g., using Amazon Route 53 or Elastic IP) is configured to automatically update. If the application servers are hardcoded with the original primary's hostname, they cannot resolve or reach the new primary, causing connection failure.

Answer

HANA System Replication is not configured correctly for automatic failover.

Answer

The Amazon EFS file system is not available in the secondary Availability Zone.

Answer

The security group of the application servers does not allow outbound traffic to the secondary HANA instance.

Question 20

A company is designing an SAP HANA database on AWS. The database requires high throughput and low latency for data volumes. Which TWO AWS features should be used to meet these requirements? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Enable EBS optimization on the EC2 instance.. Option D is correct because enabling EBS optimization on an EC2 instance dedicates network bandwidth to EBS I/O, eliminating contention between network and storage traffic, which is critical for SAP HANA's high-throughput, low-latency requirements. Option E is correct because EBS io2 Block Express volumes provide up to 256,000 IOPS per volume with sub-millisecond latency, meeting the demanding performance needs of SAP HANA data volumes.

Answer

Use EBS gp3 volumes for the HANA data volume.

Answer

Use EC2 instance store volumes for the HANA data volume.

Answer

Store HANA data on Amazon S3 with S3 Express One Zone.